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CUBAN INTERVENTION. 



Any man, whether a member of Congress or otherwise, who would attempt to 
make a dollar out of such a crisis is too mean to live. Men who attempt to specu- 
late on the calamities of the poor Cohans or on the blowing up of the Maine 

ought to be shot. 



S P E E C II 



HON. SHELBY M. CULLOM, 

OF ILLINOIS, 



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SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



Friday, April 15, 1898. 



WASHINGTON. 

1898. 
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speech 

OF 

HON. SHELBY M. CULL OIL 



The Senate having under consideration the joint resolution (S. R. 149) for 
the recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba, demanding that" 
the Government of Spain relinquish its authority and government iu tho 
Island of Cuba, and to withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and 
Cuban waters, and directing the President of the United States to use tho 
land and naval forces of the United States to carry these resolutions into 
effect- 
Mr. CULLOM said: 

Mr. President: On yesterday evening I had the honor of ob- 
taining the floor for the purpose of making some remarks upon 
the resolution before the Senate and upon the subject under 
consideration generally. I stated then, before an adjournment 
was taken, that on the 10th day of December, 1896. 1 had the honor 
of addressing the Senate on the joint resolution (S. R. 168) intro- 
duced by me at that time, declaring the extinction of Spanish 
title and the termination of Spanish control of the islands at the 
gateway of the Gulf of Mexico. 

On that occasion, referring to the condition of affairs then ex- 
isting in Cuba, I called attention to the magnitude of the prob- 
lems which even in that early day of the struggle of tho Cuban 
patriots for independence had grown out of that condition. Those 
problems I then took opportunity to observe would demand solu- 
tion in the early future, and I ventured the assertion that the de- 
termination of the policy to be pursued in the solution of those 
problems would result in the independence of Cuba and lead to 
the conclusion that a people with such a history and such an edu- 
cation as the Spanish people have must be expelled from all par- 
ticipation in the control of any territorial possessions on this 
hemisphere. 

Since that time the deplorable condition of affairs in Cuba has 
become more and more intensified, and the necessity for action by 
this Government, upon the lines of policy which at that time 

3337 3 



■were indicated by ine, has become more and more apparent, until 

now the hour for action is about to strike. 

Step by step Spain has been pushed back from dominion in the 

New World, as she was crowded from control in Europe. Now 

she is to lose another of her possessions. Her oppressed subjects 

in Cuba are about to become the arbiters of their own destiny. 

This result is inevitable; for, as has been aptly remarked by some 

one: 

Some incurable vice in her organization, or it may be in the temperament 
of her people, neutralizes all the advantages Spain ought to derive from her 
Btubborn hardihood, her nearly perfect capacity for endurance, and the som- 
ber genius alike for war, for art, and for literature which have so often 
marked her sons. No race outside her own borders, even if Spanish by ori- 
gin, lias ever been able to endure her reign, and every race which has resisted 
has ultimately succeeded in withdrawing itself from her control. 

If permitted to pursue her pitiless course in Cuba, she would go 
on without remorse, and, if she could, she would exterminate the 
million and a half of patriots who deprecate her tyrannical poli- 
cies and her cruel and bloody methods in peace as well as in war. 
Her ruthlessness is apparent in the conditions now existing in 
Cuba as related by four eyewitnesses who are members of this 
Senate. 

The story as told by the honorable Senator from Vermont [Mr. 
Proctor] has challenged the attention of the whole civilized 
world. That narrative shows that at our very door the cruelty 
of Spain is blackening the history of the time with deeds that cry 
aloud to heaven for vengeance. With a careful pen the honora- 
ble Senator wrote his tale of woe. He gave to it no coloring that 
truth did not absolutely require him to use. He did not allow 
his emotions to lead him into any expression of anger. He com- 
pelled himself to relate the harrowing facts which had come un- 
der his observation without using any of the forms of indignant 
speech which were doubtless suggested to his mind. 

He told the story of Cuban suffering fully, it is true, but with 
a gentleness of expression that, under the circumstances, was 
wonderful, and in almost any other man than the judicial-ininded 
Senator from Vermont would have been impossible. But this 
story - ering and outrage, thus mitigated in the telling, has 

d the indignation of America and stirred the conscience of 
the world. 
: 2 ■ ". 



This distressful story was corroborated by the distinguished 
Senators from Mew Hampshire, Nebraska, and Mississippi, all of 
whom have visited the island and have borne testimony in this 
Chamber to the cruelty of Spanish warfare in Cuba in a most elo- 
quent and forcible manner, giving the story over again of the hor- 
rible condition of the suffering and death of the reconcentrados. 

In addition to the statements of these distinguished gentlemen, 
General Lee, in his testimony before the Committee on Foreign 
Eolations since his arrival, says that he regards the condition of 
the reconcentrados as being just as bad as it has ever been; that 
great suffering still exists and will continue to exist until they 
are relieved by the hand of charity from this or some country 
other than Spain, and that very little of the reported appropria- 
tion by Spain of $000,000 for the sustenance of the reconcentrados 
will be spent for the relief of the suffering people there. 

That there is any extremity to which Spain would not go in an 
attempt to wreak her desire for vengeance upon the United States 
I do not believe. The officials, in the exercise of authority con- 
ferred by her, have robbed, imprisoned, and even murdered citi- 
zens of this Republic. Our flag has been insulted repeatedly on 
her soil, and while in the discharge of their duties representatives 
of this Government have been threatened with violence. And, 
worse still, one of our battle ships, while on a friendly call at 
Havana, was destroyed by the explosion of a mine and 268 of her 
crew murdered in cold blood. 

These heroes were not permitted to die in battle striking blows 
in the service of their country. They were assailed by Spanish 
treachery working in darkness. But, although they were not 
permitted to die in the hurly-burly of battle, while exalted into 
patriotic fervor by the excitement of war, they will never be for- 
gotten by their grateful countrymen. In no part of the land or 
sea are they unknown. 

Sir, this tragedy has aroused a spirit of resentment throughout 
the length and breadth of the Republic, and the patriotic people 
of all sections of the country are demanding that the President 
and the Congress shall resent the assault upon the Maine as an act 
of war by Spain, and that the resenting blow shall be struck with- 
out unnecessary delay. 
3237 



Sir, there seems to be good reason for this demand. All the 
evidence goes to show that the Maine was destroyed by an outside 
force; that whatever the destroying agency was, it was placed in 
position in the harbor by the officials of the Spanish Government; 
that the officials of the Spanish Government, whose duty it was 
to know of the existence and location of the destroying agency, 
conducted the vessel to its anchorage, and that only officials of 
Spain could have used or have permitted others to use the means 
by which the destroying agency was utilized for the purpose for 
which it was intended. 

The testimony of Captain Sigsbee, commander of the Maine, 
shows that every precaution had been taken to prevent accidents; 
that every portion of the ship had been inspected, including the 
magazines, coal bunkers, etc., and that he felt sure that the ship 
was blown up by an outside force. 

Ensign Powelson, who w r as present on the wreck of the Maine 
every day while the divers were making their investigations, 
speaking of the important discoveries made by them during his 
presence, testifies that the bow of the vessel where the explosion 
occurred was pushed tip and that diver Morgan, while walking on 
the bottom, fell into a hole on the port side and reported that 
everything in the vicinity of this hole seemed bent upward. The 
plates were found split, forming a V, pushed over and bent down 
over the 10-inch magazine. He further says that diver Smith 
worked himself forward and down to the keel on the bottom plat- 
ing, at the point where the keel went into the mud, at which 
point he found a hole in the mud about G feet deep and 15 feet in 
diami fcer. 

General Lee, in his testimony before the Committee on Foreign 
Relations, stated that he was satisfied that the explosion causing 
the destruction of the Maine came from a force from outside of 
the ship. He also states that the man who did the work of de- 
stroying the Maine must have been an officer thoroughly ac- 
quainted with explosives of all sorts, and one who knew all about 
the :nanner of producing the explosion. 

He further states, as was stated here on the floor by the Sena- 
tor from Maine [Mr. Fryb], that upon the night of the disaster 

the Spaniards wore rejoicing among themselves, drinking charn- 
3237 



pagne in honor of the event, and in many portions of the city 
were making merry on account of the destruction of the Maine, 

its officers and crew. 

From all this and much more that can he stated of the cvidenco 
taken hy the naval hoard and hy the Committee on Foreign Re- 
lations there seems to be no way by which Spain can escape 
responsibility for the destruction of the battle ship or by which 
we can overlook the force of the suggestion that the destruction 
of the vessel, under the circumstances stated, was in fact effected 
by the treachery and work of Spanish officials. 

If the assertion is made that war can not be justified by circum- 
stantial evidence that the nation upon which war is to be made 
has been guilty of an offense which she denies, viz, the destruc- 
tion of the Maine, and that only in the extremest of cases could 
we be justified in acting on the principle of international law that 
a state may interfere in a hostile manner in the affairs of another 
state guilty of a wrong against humanity or liberty, we would be 
justified, nevertheless, in interference with the action of Spain in 
Cuba in the interests of commerce and the repose of our own 
society. 

Long ago, indeed, acting outside of every consideration of sym- 
pathy for the Cuban patriots, acting wholly in our own interests, 
we should have in some way avoided the necessity under which 
we have acted, of being in effect an ally of Spain in her efforts to 
suppress a people who are so gallantly struggling for freedom. 

But, sir, whatever may have been our sins of omission against 
liberty in the armed controversy in progress between Spain and 
Cuba, we propose now to do our duty to God and humanity, lib- 
erty, and to ourselves by saying to Spain: "Hold your hand! 
You shall not outrage liberty and humanity in Cuba any longer. 
You must withdraw your army and abdicate your authority." 

This we must say now, and if Spain shall see proper to resent 
our action we shall not hesitate to take up the gauntlet and ap- 
peal to the God of battles and to the judgment of mankind to jus- 
tify us in our course. 

Mr. President, it is said that Spain will appeal to other mo- 
narchical governments to aid her in her struggle with the United 

States, and that she will base her appeal for assistance upon the 
3237 



8 

ground that our interference in her attempt to suppress insurrec- 
tion is a violation of the doctrine asserted hy the allied powers of 
Europe in 1821, when Greece was struggling for her independ- 
ence, namely: 

That useful anil necessary changes in legislation and administration ought 
only to emanate from the free will and intelligent conviction of those whom 
God has rendered responsible for power. All that deviates from this lino 
necessarily leads to disorder, commotions, and evils far more insufferable 

than those which they pretend to remedy. 

This is the doctrine of the divine right of kings, and if it were 

asserted by a world in arms, America would be compelled to resist 

it to the bitter end and set up in opposition to it the divine right 

of the people to govern themselves. In the language of Webster, 

speaking in the Senate of the United States seventy-five years ago: 

That the people hold their fundamental privileges from the sovereign 
power is a sentiment not easy to be diffused in this age any further than it 
is enforced by the direct operation of military means. 

Against this doctrine we have set up the American "doctrine 
' : That useful and necessary changes in legislation and administra- 
tion ought to emanate from the free will and intelligent conviction 
of the people." Tried by this principle, the right of Spain to rule 
in Cuba must be denied, since it is a fact that a large majority of 
the people of the island desire independence and the right to rule 
themselves. 

In the light of this fact and of other facts that appeal to our 
humanity and to our business, commercial, and political interests 
stands displayed to all the w oriel the duty of America to inter- 
fere in the affairs of Cuba and compel Spain to withdraw her 
army and her civil authority from the island and permit the peo- 
ple thereof to enjoy the inalienable rights of man, among which 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

In attempted refutation of all that has been said of the misgov- 
ernment of Cuba and of the cruelty of Spain, the assertion has been 
made, and is even yet being made, that there exists no real cause 
of complaint by us against Spain, no cause that can justify us in 
interfering in the pending conflict in Cuba; that a sensational 
press has produced, without good reason, the excited condition of 
the public mind which is demanding that our Government shall 
take up anus against the Spaniard and expel him from the conti- 
nent. 



9 

This is an attempt to hide from the world the truth of the pres- 
ent situation; it is another of idle many attempts that selfish in- 
terests have made to excuse the influence of kingly power at the 
expense of liberty, and to exalt peace in the humiliation of that 
spirit of freedom which should be ever slow to wrath, indeed, but 
always swift in vindication of its glorious mission and of its ex- 
alted dignity in the affairs of mankind. 

As much as any other man I deprecate the sensationalism of the 
press, which perverts truth and makes a molehill of fact a moun- 
tain of falsehood; but the sensationalism of the press has not made 
Spain, in all her history, vindictive and cruel; a nation productive 
in wonderful fertility of great men, but of incapable statesman- 
ship and bloody deeds; the nation of the inquisition, of the Duke 
of Alva, and of General Weyler. The press did not create the 
facts which have been established irrefutably by the testimony 
delivered in this presence by the honorable Senators from Ver- 
mont, New Hampshire, Nebraska, and Mississippi. 

The sensationalism of the press did not compel Weyler to resort 
to the system of warfare, repugnant to all our ideas, under which 
hundreds of thousands of inoffensive men, women, and children 
have been subjected to the horrors of slow death by starvation; 
under which Ruiz and others were murdered; under which an 
innocent Cuban maiden was imprisoned and threatened with a 
fate the anticipation of which created a sentiment of horror in the 
heart of every man and woman in America. 

"Was it the sensationalism of the press that prompted a minister 
of Spain, accredited to this Government, to insult the President of 
the Republic and that instigated the crime of the destruction of the 
battle ship Maine and the murder of hundreds of her gallant crew? 
No, no; the press of America has done nothing more in this in- 
stance than to hold the mirror up to Spain and show to that nation 
her own frightfully distorted features and to reflect upon her 
vision the story of her crimes against God and humanity, crimes 
the bloodiest in all the annals of time. 

Mr. President, the press has told the truth, but not all the truth, 
concerning affairs in Cuba, because the situation is so full of hor- 
rors it can not be overstated, can not, indeed, be adequately slated 

in all the length and breadth of its appalling horribk-ness. It has 
3237 



10 

appeared to me since this discussion lias been going on that the 
pn ss failed to tell the whole truth even as much as we had imag- 
ined sometimes that it was telling more than the truth for the 
purpose of sensation. 

Mr. President, in the contemplation of this situation I have been 
forced to the conclusion that there is but one course that we can 
pursue with honor. In an effort to alleviate the sufferings of the 
people of Cuba we nave expostulated with Spain and have endeav- 
ored to induce her to wage her war of suppression in accordance 
T7ith the rules of civilized warfare; but our expostulations have 
been in vain. 

She has persisted in her system of inhuman warfare, feebly 
fighting the insurgents, cruelly starving unarmed men and help- 
less women and children, insulting and murdering American cit- 
izens, and demonstrating in many ways her inability to govern 
and her determination to listen to nothing but the promptings of 
a national pride out of which flows a constant stream of misery 
and death. 

Contemplating this condition, I have been forced to the con- 
clusion that we must interfere and put an end to the war of Spain 
upon the Cubans; that we must do this in the interests of human- 
ity as well as in our own interest. 

Sir, to this conclusion the President has come, with many thou- 
sands of his fellow- citizens who deprecate the idea of war. He 
has desired, as every other truly patriotic man has desired, the 
settlement of the Cuban question by peaceful methods; but he has 
never been an advocate of the debasing policy of "peace at any 
price."' He knows that peace purchased by dishonorable conces- 
sions is debasing and dangerous to popular government; and now, 
having failed in his laudable efforts to induce Spain to accept the 
suggestions made by him and to act upon humane principles, he 
has taken a stand in the interest of the American people and of 
humanity. 

Mr. President, I have no desire for war. It is painful to me to 
believe that war is imminent, but there seems to be no honorable 
escape from it. Horrible as war is. yet there are other things 
wui - ■ than war. No honorable-spirited people can afford to sit 
silently by and see tens and hundreds of thousands of people help- 



11 

less and starving to death at the nation's door. It matters not 
whether they are of our own nation or in a country under the 
domination of some other. 

It is, in my judgment, the duty of this Government to intervene 
in behalf of such suffering people, whatever may be the conse- 
quence to our nation in doing so. It is worse than war in its con- 
sequence upon us to permit such a condition of affairs in Cuba to 
longer continue. To do so is a manifestation of indifference and 
cowardice and neglect of our plain duty as a Christian people. 

It may be said that the President should have proceeded to the 
patriotic task he has entered upon in some other way than along 
the lines upon which he proposes to act; that he should have 
recognized or have recommended the recognition by Congress of 
the independence of the Republic of Cuba either before or at the 
same time he asked for an authority to intervene with armed 
force in the affairs of the island. 

In this criticism of the President's action I can not. after serious 
deliberation, concur. 

The recognition of the independence of the Republic of Cuba, 
unaccompanied by any other act on our part, would not accom- 
plish the purpose we have in view — the immediate relief of the 
Cuban population from starvation and the horrors of the bar- 
barous system of Spanish warfare. The recognition of the inde- 
pendence of Cuba would not be an act of war against Spain, and 
it would not be a justifiable cause of war by Spain against the 
United States. It would leave the situation unrelieved in the 
only way that will be satisfactory to the people of this country. 

Recognition of Cuba's independence without immediate inter- 
ference would include, of course, the recognition of belligerency 
and entitle this Government to insist that the war should be con- 
ducted in accordance with those humane laws that have been or- 
dained by the common consent of the civilized world. But this 
action would give to Spain more time in which to oppress the 
Cubans while conducting a diplomatic controversy with us; more 
time in which to invoke and procure the moral if not the phys- 
ical support of the European nations. But, it is said, we might 
interfere with arms at the very moment we would recognize the 

independence of the Cuban Republic. 
3337 



12 

But is this true? Could we, if we recognized the independence 
of the insurgent government, interpose in our own way with our 
Army and Navy? Would we not then be compelled to act in any 
armed action against Spain in Cuba in accordance with the wishes 
of the Cuban Republic and under its authority? And are we sure 
that under such conditions we would give effect to the wishes of 
our own Government in reference to Spain? Would we not, by 
such action, forego our right to punish Spain in our own way for 
the wrongs she has done to us as a nation, for her shocking viola- 
tions of the rules of civilized warfare? 

I am not forgetful of the suggestion that has been made, that 
intervention without recognition of the Cuban republican gov- 
ernment creates possibilities of financial complications and condi- 
tions respecting the ultimate settlement between Spain and Cuba; 
but upon reflection I have come to the conclusion that there is no 
force in this suggestion; that it is unworthy of consideration under 
the circumstances of the existing crisis. And this leads me to re- 
peat what I have said elsewhere in reference to possible financial 
speculations, viz, that any man, whether a member of Congress 
or otherwise, who would attempt to make a dollar out of such a 
crisis is too mean to live. Men who attempt to speculate on the 
calamities of the poor Cubans or on the blowing up of the Maine 
ought to be shot. 

It therefore seems to me that intervention as suggested by the 
President — intervention without recognition — is the wisest policy, 
being the policy under which we can act without delay and with- 
out the danger of embarrassing complications with the insurgent 
authorities. 

But I desire to say, Mr. President, that when the time comes, 
after Spanish rule is driven from that island and after the Cuban 
patriots have been freed from their domination, I hope the Presi- 
dentof the United States, through any agency he may desire, upon 
looking over that country, may find out what the proper gov- 
ernment ought to be, and if those gallant patriots who have been 
making the fight for liberty have a government there such as ought 
to be allowed to stand, that he will recognize it immediately after 
the war shall have been over. 

But intervention is the policy under which we may now say to 
Spain, "You have outraged human nature; you are endangering 



13 

the peace of tlie world; you have shown yourself in the govern- 
ment of Cuba to be incapable both in peace and in war; you have 
insulted this Government, have robbed, imprisoned, and mur- 
dered our citizens, and have destroyed great interests of the peo- 
ple of the United States, and now you must withdraw your ar- 
mies and your civil officers from Cuba so that peace maybe made 
enduring in the island and the people's rights be no longer out- 
raged by tyranny and misgovernment." 

The only question, then, that remains is, Have we the right to 
intervene under international law? This right in us, under exist- 
ing conditions. I have no doubt exists. 

In the report made by the honorable chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Foreign Relations, which is one of the ablest reports ever 
made to the Senate, in my judgment, I find quotations which have 
already been read to the Senate, but I shall take occasion to read 
them again. I shall refer to only a part of what appears in the 
report. 

Arntz, a writer on international law, maintains that the right 
of intervention exists, to copy from the report of the Committee 
on Foreign Relations: 

1. When the institutions of one state violate or threaten to violate the 
rights of another state, or when such violation is the necessary consequence 
of its institutions and the impossibility of an orderly coexistence of states 
results therefrom. 

2. When a government, acting entirely within the limits of its prerogatives 
of sovereignty, violates the rights of humanity, whether by measures con- 
trary to the interests of other states or by excessive injustice and cruelty 
which deeply wounds public morals and civilization. 

The right of intervention — 

Continues Arntz — 

Is a legitimate one, because however important may be the rights of sover- 
eignty and independence, there is one thing of still greater importance, and 
that is the law of humanity and human society, which ought not to be out- 
raged. 

Mr. President, it seems to me that we can place the right to in- 
tervene upon that last sentence, written by the law writer Arntz, 
that the law of humanity and human society has been outraged 
by the course pursued by the Spanish army and the Spanish Gov- 
ernment in starving to death the hundreds and thousands of poor 
noncombatants— old men, women, and children. 

Without elaborating further the argument that we have a righl 

to intervene, I may call attention to the fact that both President 
3237 



14 

Cleveland and President McKinley have warned Spain that the 

time niiglit come when, in the language of President McKinley 

in his message of December 6, 1897— 

If it shall hereafter appear to be a duty, imposed by our obligations toour- 
selv< s. to civilization and humanity, to intervene with force, it shall be with- 
out fault on our part and only because the necessity for such action will ba 
mmand the support and approval of the civilized world. 

Mr. President, the time has come when without fault on our 
pari we must intervene in the affairs of Cuba, and that the Presi- 
dent may be enabled to do so, he should be directed and empow- 
ered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States. 

Let us not hesitate to give to him that authority, and let us give 
it to him in the confident belief that even now is the day and the 
In mi- in which this Government, that was consolidated by the 
statesmanship of Washington and saved from destruction by the 
patriotism and wisdom of Lincoln, speaking by the voice of 
McKinley, shall demand the retirement of Spain from Cuba; and 
upon her refusal to comply the Republic will thunder this demand 
from the mouths of a thousand cannons. 

Mr. President, I esteem it an honor that I am able to-day to say 
that I join in the support of the announced policy of President 
McKinley. I do not care whether he has dotted every "i"or 
crossed every "t" in his proclamation to the world; everybody 
knows that he has said plainly enough to Spain, and every Amer- 
ican echoes the words, that the Government of Spain shall at once 
relinquish its authority and government on the Island of Cuba. 

After the vote is taken upon the report of the Committee on 
Foreign Relations, there will be but one mind and one voice in 
the United States. 

However much my friends may hesitate and doubt as to the un- 
important phrasing of the announcement, nobody on earth, not 
even Spain, will misconstrue or misunderstand our plain demand. 

Mr. President, the greatest criminal trial of modern times is 
approaching a conclusion. The people of the entire world have 
been witnesses upon this trial. The indictment against the of- 
fender has been proclaimed to every land and has beon read in 
every language. 

The Kingdom of Spain has been the first and only nation to 

merit a reputation so awful in character or to achieve a place in 

;s:.':;7 



15 

history so completely unparalleled in infamy and wrong. The 
evidence has been given, and the inquest of the world is now sit- 
ting in solemn consideration of that evidence. 

The announcement of the verdict is awaited with expectation 
by every country upon the earth. No other nation in many hun- 
dreds of years has been evicted arbitrarily from its holdings and 
driven into the complete and perfect disgrace of universal ostra- 
cism. The punishment is great; God knows that the crime was 
greater. The humiliation and the bitter disgrace of the fall of a 
nation which once owned nine-tenths of the great American con- 
tinent are stupendous and terrific, even in contemplation, but 
that humiliation and disgrace, complete and awful as they are, 
do not in even a minute degree compare with the offenses and 
enormities chargeable against the Government of Spain. 

The history of Spain is a history of more than a thousand years 
of concentrated cruelty. It is a history so extensive and continu- 
ous, made up of every conceivable variety of barbaric wrong and 
outrage, too often instituted by the direct authority of the Gov- 
ernment itself, and the identity known to the world as the King- 
dom of Spain is now justly and properly i-ecognized as an "out- 
law among nations." 

It has always been a robber nation. It has always been the 
merciless appropriator of the property of others. While enjoying 
the honor of the discovery of America, she appropriated the coun- 
tries, the islands, and the waters, spied out by that intrepid Ital- 
ian navigator who commanded her ships and who first set his foot 
upon San Salvador. 

The reward he received from Spain was precisely in kind and 
keeping with the reward Spain has always given to those who 
have performed meritorious services for her. He was imprisoned 
and punished, humiliated and degraded for the offense of adding 
to the Spanish domain the wondrous territory of the New World. 
All this territory which was formerly by virtue of discovery and 
occupation known as Spanish America, has become the home of 
political freemen, forever emancipated from the narrow and 
miserable control cf a country which governed only by the sword, 
whose watchword was blood and whose inspiration was death. 

From the fertile plains of Argentina far across the River Plata, 

from the heights of the Andes to the lowlands of the Amazon, 
3237 



L1BKRKY 0\- CONUKbbb 



013 902 148 4 



16 

from Yucatan to Saw Francisco, all the valleys and the mountains 
of Central America and over the entire country of Mexico, through 
the beautiful glades of Florida, the plains of Texas, almost the 
whole of the valleys of the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the 
Yellowstone, the golden sands of the Sacramento, and the rugged 
mountain sides of the Columbia, all this vast and magnificent es- 
tate, now the home of twenty independent countries, was once by 
and through the genius and perseverance of Columbus, the prop- 
erty of Spain. And for all this Columbus received only chains 
and a prison cell. 

And so, forward to the present day. So from 1492 to 1898, the 
story of Spanish inhumanity is just as true in the nineteenth 
century as it was in the days of the Inquisition. In Cuba, its 
ultimatum as held out to the reconcentrados has been simply 
the alternative of death by starvation or death by the machete. 
Human life in the Spanish lexicon is a thing of no value. Gen- 
eral Wej-ler started out two years ago with what he termed a 
policy of pacification. He told his sovereign that in such and 
such a period he would pacify the insurgent provinces of Cuba. 

How did he pacify them? He penned those poor noncombatant 
women, children, and old men up in barbed- wire inclosures and 
surrounded them by deep trochas and canals, where they could 
easily be pacified by the machete. Two hundred thousand Cubans 
of both sexes and of all ages sleep the sleep of pacification in their 
graves upon the soil once owned by them. The United States has 
waited with an awful waiting until by such methods Spain could 
pacify a people. If an American citizen was charged by mere 
suspicion with anything whatever, he was locked up in vile prison 
cells and held incomunicado for such unlimited time as his captors 
chose. 

Thanks to the unwavering sense of justice of the people of the 
United States, the murderers and the outlaws who now exercise a 
brie f show of authority in Cuba will soon become incomunicado 
until justice shall be satisfied and the avenging angel shall write 
the verdict and sentence of the offended world. And if the people 
of this country shall do nothing more in this century than drive 
the Spaniards from this country, we as a people shall earn tho 
praisei of every lover of freedom and humanity the world over. 

O 



